A 10-year-old Syrian girl in the town of Aleppo is now tasked with raising her four younger siblings after the children's parents were killed by shrapnel from a barrel bomb dropped by a Syrian government war planes last October.

Lost in the shadows of the Islamic State's takeover in Syria are the effects felt by Syrian citizens in the country's on-going civil war. A highly controversial tactic used by the government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of dropping improvised explosives called "barrel bombs" out of helicopters has led to the killing of numerous innocent citizens.

In the heavily bombarded Aleppo neighborhood of Baedeen, a frightened and unprepared Rana has been forced to take on the parental role for her younger siblings all while trying to continue her education and make ends meet because her parent's lives were taken as a result of Syrian government's tactics. more >>

The Islamic State terrorist organization has chopped off the hands of three women and whipped five men who were caught using their cellphones in the Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, a witness has claimed.

An unnamed source informed IraqiNews.com last Thursday that ISIS militants in Iraq's second-largest city have cut off the hands of three women, although the charges against the women remain unannounced.

The source also informed the news agency that the militant organization also whipped five men after they were caught using their cell phones to talk to their families. more >>

I'm pleased to see that the Southern Poverty Law Center has come to its senses and apologized to Dr. Ben Carson, removing him from their "extremist" list. But they need to apologize to me too, since I'm still on their list, along with a number of other Christian leaders whom they have branded anti-gay extremists.

Sudanese government forces systematically raped and beat at least 221 women and girls in a series of organized door-to-door attacks in Darfur last year, a leading human rights watchdog group announced on Wednesday.

In releasing a 48-page report, Human Rights Watch detailed how Sudanese army troops went from house to house in the North Darfur town of Tabit last October and raped over 221 civilian girls and women in just a 36-hour timespan.

"The deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town's women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur," Human Rights Watch Africa Director Daniel Bekele told reporters. more >>

A petition calling for the nationwide ban of so-called conversion therapy, more commonly known as Sexual Orientation Change Effort therapy, has reached the desk of President Barack Obama. Leelah's Law would outlaw SOCE for minors and is named after Leelah (Josh) Alcorn, who took her life after therapy allegedly failed to relieve her of depression surrounding her sexuality.

Chris Doyle, a licensed clinical professional counselor and director with the International Healing Foundation, previously spoke with The Christian Post about SOCE and its effect on those struggling with same sex attraction. He also addressed the politics surrounding SOCE and Leelah's Law in particular. more >>

The Islamic State policing unit in Mosul severely disfigured the faces of 15 Iraqi women by pouring acid on them as a form of punishment after the women were caught without their faces being veiled appropriately, by ISIS standards, last weekend.

ISIS' all-female policing unit, the Al Khansa brigade, which polices the streets of the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa and Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, reportedly carried out the punishments after the women were detained on Sunday in the Mosul neighborhood of Salamiya, a kurdish official told BasNews.

The official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul, Saed Mamuzini, told the news site that the women were subject to the cruel, face-deforming punishment simply because they were caught in public without wearing a Niqab, the cloth like veil that fully covers the face except for slit for the eyes. more >>